Somewhere in Hua Hin....

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the border issue with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in Thailand’s resort town of Hua Hin, with the two leaders stressing the need to maintain peace and narrow the differences. While the two refrained from discussing the discord over Arunachal Pradesh and the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to the state that has been the source of the recent tension in ties, they agreed that it was imperative to maintain peace along the disputed border area. Wen stressed that China wanted to have a “steady and healthy’’ relationship with India and the two leaders agreed not to allow differences to act as an impediment against “functional cooperation’’ between them. Singh and Wen had a “productive meeting’’ for almost an hour along the sidelines of the Asean and East Asia summit in which they, as both sides stated, agreed to further build trust and understanding. “We want to have a healthy and steady relationship with India. I hope we can use this opportunity to exchange our views on all related issues,’’ said Wen. However, the contentious issue of Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to Arunachal remained unaddressed, leading analysts in India to state that Saturday’s meeting is unlikely to result in a softening of Beijing’s tough stance toward Delhi. “In June, for example, no sooner than Hu Jintao and Manmohan had appeared hand-in-hand at the first-ever BRIC summit, than the Chinese state-controlled media ran vituperative attacks against India,’’ said strategic affairs analyst Brahma Chellaney. “India, in this decade, has hyped the outcome of every bilateral meeting with China,’’ he pointed out. Asian leaders discussed plans to “lead the world’’ by forming an EU-style community. Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama pressed them to move towards the creation of an East Asian bloc and take advantage of the region’s rapid recovery from the global slump. He said the group would involve Asean with regional partners like India, China, Japan, S Korea, Australia and New Zealand.